Highland Park Viking Legend Series Whisky Reviews!

Quick-fire concise reviews of the three releases in Highland Park's 'Viking Legend' series: Valkyrie, Valknut and Valfather.

I must admit that I've lost touch with Highland Park's official bottlings in recent years. The viking marketing was getting a little tiresome (and it still is if you ask me), and the sheer number of releases from the distillery were and are making it difficult to keep track. There was the core range, then a viking range, then a travel retail range, then another viking range, then a viking travel retail range, and then a re-vamped core range, plus a lot of other seemingly random limited releases, seemingly each with less & less differentiation between themselves but with more obscure marketing angles, and it all just became too hard. A quick look at the distillery's website for clarity shows a staggering total of 52 releases, not including the "archive" section. Ignoring the already-flooded travel retail category, the Highland Park core range has stayed relatively sane, with the 12-, 18-, 21- and 25-year olds, and they've also recently added a 10-year old entry-level whisky to that category. But along with a recent packaging & bottle redesign they've now found it necessary to add names to those age statements: the 10-year old is now "Viking Scars", the 12-year old is now "Viking Honour", and the 18-year old is now "Viking Pride". Is being part of Scotland so distasteful? Still a Scotch Whisky, though! The pricing on that 12-year old has stayed reasonable, with the newer 10-year old slightly lower as you'd expect, but the 18-year old is now a $250 AUD bottle, and it's still at 43% ABV, while the 25-year old is now a $1000 bottle, which is frankly ridiculous. Thankfully there is a multitude of more reasonably priced Highland Park to choose from, and latterly they seem to have (finally) slowed things down a little with the releases. Some of these are actually hidden gems - the 'Full Volume' first-fill bourbon cask bottling that I reviewed last year comes to mind straight away. So all hope is not lost!

The bottlings that we're looking at today are from the 'Viking Legend' series, which is a trio of limited releases based around the Nordic myths of Valhalla (basically viking warrior heaven) and Odin. All three have used higher (but unspecified) percentages of the distillery's own floor-malted barley than the usual proportions, which are approximately 20% floor-malted to 80% externally-sourced barley. That floor-malted barley is lightly peated to around 20 ppm, and uses Orkney peat from Hobbister Moor near the distillery, which is lighter, more floral and heathery than that of the other island malts. All are presented in black glass bottles and with similar packaging that was penned by a Danish designer, none have age statements, and all hover at close-to 46% ABV. As much as I don't like the heaped-on and totally unnecessary viking-heavy marketing that is plastered onto most of the Highland Park releases, I must admit that these bottles themselves do look good - they're much more simplistic than those of the current core & travel retail range, although I don't quite see the point of the black glass - something that this distillery seems to love, which seems slightly contradictory to their policy of never adding e150 colouring to any of their single malts. Also slightly contradictory to that policy is the distillery chill filtering the majority of their whiskies, even at strengths above 46%, although they do point out that this filtration happens at a higher temperature than with most chill filtered whiskies, even going to the lengths of declaring that on their packaging in some cases. The only officially non-chill filtered Highland Park official bottling that I can recall was Dark Origins, which was quite a few years ago now, although there probably were/are more. I'm sure you'll agree that it would be better for all if they'd just stop chill filtering altogether!

The samples for these three quick-fire reviews were provided by Mark Hickey, Brand Ambassador for Spirits Platform, the Australian importer & distributor for Highland Park. I decided to review all three in sequence since they all follow the same theme, so will make for an interesting comparison, and due to sample size and in the interests of brevity they'll be more concise than my usual stand-alone reviews. But I'm sure they'll still be of use. As mentioned, all are bottled at their natural colour but are likely chill filtered, and all are a mix of ex-bourbon, ex-sherry and refill casks, and use a higher proportion than normal of the distillery's own floor-malted barley. Price-wise these three are all in the same ballpark at $140-150 AUD, and all are still readily available. Tasting time!

The first of the three bottlings is Valkyrie, which was released in 2017. It's a mix of American and European oak sherry casks and American oak ex-bourbon casks, and refill casks, plus the higher proportion of floor-malted barley as mentioned above. This one is bottled at 45.9%, and why the hell you wouldn't just make that a nice round 46% is beyond me! As we'll know from Thor: Ragnarok, the Valkyries were female warriors, and in Norse mythology they were angel-type beings that would choose which dead warriors were taken to Valhalla (Viking heaven) from the battlefield. But rather than glorify their beliefs let's also remember that the Vikings were the bad guys, they were invaders, who liked to murder, rape & pillage and claim things for their own. But you won't find that mentioned on any of Highland Park's packaging.

Colour: Gold with amber tinges.
Nose: Fresh & light, with dusty hay, white pepper, and lightly waxy red apples. Very soft floral peat in the background, with some dried apricot and a hint of spearmint.

Texture: Light-medium weight, clean, a little raw heat but not harsh.
Taste: More white pepper, plus vanilla cream, slight red apples, slight waxy-ness. Maybe some ginger. Richer than the nose suggested, but this is not a particularly rich whisky.

Finish: Short length. Lightly waxy red apples, white pepper and a little wood spice and leather.

Score & Notes: 3 out of 5. A pleasant-enough entry level dram, but it seems a little youthful and a little raw underneath the outer coating. It's notably Highland Park in feel though, slightly boosted maybe from the extra ABV, but this is not on the level of Dark Origins or Full Volume.

Next up is Valknut, the 2018 release, which is bottled at a higher strength of 46.8%, and they've added a small amount of Orkney-grown Tartan barley to this recipe, presumably malted at the distillery. This one was "predominantly" matured in American oak sherry casks, with no details given on the other cask types. Valknut is the name of a Nordic symbol (see the box above) that in their mythology was how the Valkyries marked or designated the warriors that were selected to go to Valhalla. To me it looks like an angular take on the three-legged Triskelion (derived from the Greek 'Triskeles', meaning three-legged) symbol that was used in a number of ancient cultures, including Celtic and Greek - the symbol used in the 'coin' on Kilchoman's bottle is a good example, as is the flag of the Isle of Man.

Colour: Gold w/amber again, same as the Valkyrie.
Nose: Fresh & light again, but it's also more muted. More red apples, but also some red fruit - dried raspberries. Dusty grassy malt, caramel chews, a drier vanilla and some buttery oak.

Texture: Light weight. More mellow, but not as clean, more muted. A little raw heat again.
Taste: More jumbled, not as expressive. Black pepper this time, more punchy as well. Some grassy malt comes through, dry vanilla with more dried berries and nutty oak, and some sandalwood.

Finish: Short length. Caramel chews, drying oak spice (sandalwood and cinnamon) and a little raw spirit - not in a harsh way though. Hint of green apples and heather to finish.

Score & Notes: 2.5 out of 5. More muted, maybe even a little dull. Not as bright or expressive as Valkyrie, and less typically Highland Park - maybe the local barley? But I also suspect those sherry-seasoned American oak casks had a very short seasoning period.

Finally we have the third & final release in the series, Valfather, which was released in 2019. The bottling strength is slightly higher again at 47%, and this one is matured in refill casks - it's also claimed to be the peatiest whisky that Highland Park has released to date, but again they haven't specified how much of their own floor-malted barley was used, so that's possibly only because of the refill cask maturation letting more of the peat influence show through. Valfather, apparently meaning 'Father of the Slain' refers to Odin, the Norse God who was also referred to as 'The All-Father', but most of us will know him as Anthony Hopkins...

Colour: Same again. Which is interesting since there're no first-fill casks in here.
Nose: Drier and brighter. Spearmint, both red & green apples, soft ash and dried heather. Black pepper, a light chalky mineralic note, and fruit-flavoured boiled lolly / hard candy floral sweets.

Texture: Medium weight. Drier, cleaner, more floral and mineralic. No rawness or heat to this one.
Taste: Soft, dry, earthy & heathery peat. Dried flowers (pot purri), clean candle wax, black pepper and lime juice. Boiled sweets / lollies again too.

Finish: Short-medium length. Pepper & wax carrying through, plus the dry heathery peat, that chalky minerality, plus some dark chocolate and hints of dry spices - cinnamon, and maybe curry powder?

Score & Notes: 3 out of 5. My pick of the three, but it's less typically 'Highland Park' than the other two, with more minerality and a more subtle sweetness. The peat is certainly more evident, but this is not the peatiest Highland Park, not by a long shot. For starters it would likely need to be cask strength for that to even be possible.

Overall Notes: Three notably different whiskies here. All are on the subtle side, but in different ways, and none are going to blow your socks off - especially if you're used to higher strength independent bottlings from the same distillery. That said, the distillery DNA is there, or maybe 'house style' is a better term. I would guess that all three are young whiskies, with possibly the Valfather being left a little longer thanks to the refill cask maturation. The Valknut is the more muted of the three, while the Valkyrie is more expressive but also seems a little raw, so as mentioned Valfather would be my pick of this trio.

I don't want to seem overly cynical or negative here, these are enjoyable whiskies, but they're not as expressive as I feel Highland Park should be - at least when aimed at the whisky fan. It's not a question of ABV, either, as the Dark Origins and Full Volume weren't that much higher in ABV. But if you're not worried about such things and you want a reasonably priced example of a Highland Park that is a little different to the age statement core range, the Viking Legend series is worth a look. Just ignore as much of the Viking marketing as you can - in my opinion the distillery, or rather their marketing department, needs to dial it back a bit, it's not needed is this age of whisky discovery. There's a growing demand for transparency and honesty in this day & age, not marketing 'flannel' and needless story-telling. So we need more real and practical information on the whisky, and less - pardon the French - bullshit. And that's what grinds my gears!

Cheers!

Springbank Local Barley 10 Year Old (2019) Whisky Review!

The final release in the contemporary crop of Local Barley Springbanks from Campbeltown's finest, and the second 10-year old in the series - just to confuse things!

In typical Springbank fashion, rather than breaking the mould for this fifth & final release in the Local Barley series and giving us something crazy, they've given us a whisky that follows the theme of those that came before it. But that's no bad thing, since it's already a winning formula! This series of Local Barley Springbanks have followed a similar recipe - lightly peated locally-grown barley, mostly matured in a mix of ex-bourbon & ex-sherry casks, and all bottled at cask strength. But in reality they've all been very different, and each has had its strengths, without any obvious major weaknesses. Things kicked off back in 2016 with the already-legendary 16-year old, followed by an 11-year old in early 2017 and the first 10-year old in late 2017 (reviewed here), and the excellent 9-year old in 2018, before the second 10-year old finally hit in late 2019 after a substantial gap between releases. The aforementioned 11-year old was actually the outlier in the entire line-up since it was distilled from the ancient Bere variety of barley and was matured only in ex-bourbon casks, while the other releases have used more contemporary barley strains and have been a mix of 70-80% ex-bourbon and 20-30% ex-sherry, although this newer 10-year old seems to have had one port cask also thrown into the vat, which seems a bit of an odd choice! They've used a few different strains of barley for these releases, all locally-grown in the Campbeltown area / Kintyre Peninsula, and all 100% floor-malted at the distillery of course. I'm yet to taste the 11-year old release or this second 10-year old release at the time of writing, but so far for me the 16-year old and 9-year old are leading the pack, although both were very different from each other, and none of these whiskies have been anything close to disappointing.

All of the younger releases in the series seemed to be berated initially by those vocal & spoiled European Springbank fans who only seemed to want older whiskies - not giving any thought to the fact that this would almost defeat the purpose, since the younger whiskies have a far better chance of showing off the differences in that carefully selected & cultivated locally-grown barley. Personally, I would've loved to see an 8-year old! But Springbank have never bowed to such pressure anyway, they work to their own schedule and won't be rushed - to paraphrase Gandalf: they're never late to release a whisky, they release it precisely when they mean to! The whisky is ready when it's ready, and they release it when they're ready to release it, and that's a big part of their charm - this is a properly 'old school' distillery! This privately owned distillery is still the only malt whisky distillery in Scotland to carry out 100% of the production process on site for all of their single malts, from floor-malting 100% of their barley requirements, as well as that of neighbouring Glengyle Distillery (producing Kilkerran single malt), to milling, mashing, fermenting, distilling, maturing and bottling. The only slight gap in the ranks, although it's not really fair to call it a gap at all, is the growing of the barley itself. But these local barley releases fill that admittedly tiny hole very nicely, using only one strain of barley, produced at a single local farm, for each release. Campbeltown whiskies tend to be the domain of the whisky geek, and these Local Barley Springbanks are the geekiest of the lot. Stealing a tag line from Bruichladdich then, where they refer to certain Octomore Islay barley bottlings as "The Octomore of Octomore", these Local Barley bottlings would have to be 'The Springbanks of Springbank'!

This second 10-year old, the final instalment in this series of Local Barley bottlings was distilled in July 2009 from Optic barley grown at High Cattadale Farm, situated in Southend, right at the southern end of the Mull of Kintyre. After being floor-malted and lightly peated (to around 12-15 ppm) at the distillery it was filled into a mix casks consisting of 77% ex-bourbon, 20% ex-sherry, and 3% ex-port. 9,000 bottles were released in October 2019 at a cask strength of 56.2%, which is also the easiest way to tell the two different 10-year olds apart, since they look almost identical until you read the fine print: the first was bottled at 57.3%. As is the case with everything that Springbank put out, there's no chill filtration or added colouring to be found here. While this is the fifth & final release in this batch of Springbank Local Barley bottlings, this wasn't the first batch, and I'm sure it won't be the last. As usual this bottling took around six months to arrive in Australia - finally turning up in March 2020, and it did sell out very quickly. The sample for this review came from a very generous reader & whisky geek named Julie, who is based across the Tasman in New Zealand where they enjoy a far better Springbank offering than we do in Australia - both price-wise, range-wise and pace-wise. But, as is the case with almost everything that Springbank put out, I'm sure this one will have been worth the wait. Time to find out!

Springbank Local Barley 10-year old (2019), 56.2%. Campbeltown, Scotland.
Distilled 7/2009 from Optic barley, lightly peated. Matured in 77% ex-bourbon, 20% ex-sherry and 3% ex-port casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 9,000 bottles.

Colour: Gold.

Nose: Dry, dusty barley, lemon zest & orange pith, and a touch of icing sugar. Hay, smoked cream cheese and wood ash. A big pinch of fresh rock salt, vanilla, a little fresh chopped chilli and some yeasty bread dough - maybe sourdough? Yes, sourdough.

Texture: Heavy weight, rich & very oily. Huge texture! A little dab of heat but it's well hidden.

Taste: Dry, oily and spicy. Good quality olive oil, dried tropical fruit, lemon zest and black pepper. Chilli flakes, dry grassy malt, and a little astringent and acidic salt & white pepper that moves into ashy, spicy smoke. Vanilla and smoked cream cheese again too.

Finish: Long length. Dry, astringent, ashy spiciness with a big pinch of rock salt. Smoked cheddar cheese this time, some vanilla sugar and earthy, dry peat. Dried lemon slices in brine, white pepper, and an acidic white wine-like dried tropical fruit before finishing with dry, hay-like barley husks.

Score: 4 out of 5.

Notes: What a fascinating dram! Very complex, very challenging, and very tasty. This is not a whisky for a novice or a Campbeltown newcomer, and it's not one to rush through either - this dram needs time, and it demands attention. That big oily texture, that grassy & spicy dryness and astringency, and those cheesy (lactic) notes are really fascinating. This is a different whisky to the previous 10-year old Local Barley, of course, it's more austere and more challenging, but also somehow more mellow & more mature. This really shows just how crazy Springbank can get, without needing any exotic cask types or overt cask influence. This Local Barley bottling oozes character, depth and complexity, and it doesn't hold itself back - you'll either love it or hate it, I'm guessing. A fitting end to the series, then, if it actually is the end of the series!

Speaking of which, while I haven't tried the 11-year old Bere barley release yet, of the remaining four contemporary Local Barley Springbanks I'd have to rank them as follows: The 16-year old, the 9-year old, and this 10-year old, followed by the earlier 10-year old bringing up the rear. But really, you can't go wrong with any of these!

Cheers!

Bruichladdich Australian Exclusive Single Cask Whisky Review!

The first Australian-exclusive Bruichladdich official bottling, and the first of their Micro-Provenance series to be sold here. Exciting stuff!

This one must have sneaked in through a side door during the chaos that was and still is COVID. There were no warnings, no pre-alerts, and no marketing activities prior to this special bottle of Bruichladdich landing in the country. And then suddenly it was here, and then we blinked and it was gone just as suddenly. There was no fanfare, but then it didn't need much fanfare. This nondescript looking bottle is the first-ever Australian-exclusive bottling of Bruichladdich, and the first-ever single cask Bruichladdich to be sold in Australia, and the first of the distillery's Micro-Provenance series to be officially imported into Australia. As soon as the 'laddie-faithful caught wind of this bottlings existence, its days were numbered. While the usual suspects of Melbourne & Sydney received the lion's share of bottles for retail sale, us Queenslanders had to fight over just 24 bottles, available from just two retailers - one in Brisbane and one on the Gold Coast. Needless to say they were gone very quickly, and you'll be lucky to see any left on a retail shelf in the entire country. Some of the 282 bottles that this cask yielded were held back though, most likely for events and for the on-premise  trade (bars & restaurants) who are only now beginning to revert to their full trading capacities. So with any luck, those who missed out - or are blissfully unaware - will still get the chance to try this precious liquid.

Bruichladdich's Micro-Provenance series, as you might have guessed, is about exploring (and experimenting with) variables like different barley varieties and barley sources, cask sizes and types, maturation locations, and the natural variance between individual casks. To use their full titles, these are "Micro-Provenance Cask Evolution Exploration" bottlings - which is quite a mouthful! All of these single cask bottlings are bottled at high strength - but not necessarily cask strength - and all list the barley variety that they were distilled from, the cask type they were filled into, the warehouse that they were stored in, and the exact dates of both distillation and bottling. They're usually only sold from the distillery's own website, but occasionally they're sold to specific distributors in specific markets, or specific customers, and they can occasionally be found in 200ml tasting sets in either Bruichladdich (unpeated), Port Charlotte (heavily peated) or Octomore (super-heavily peated) guise. This isn't the first Micro-Provenance Bruichladdich that I've had the pleasure of tasting - that honour goes to this exceptional Oloroso sherry cask that was bottled for Friends of Bruichladdich, followed by the 'Mp8' trio of 200ml Port Charlottes. That 'F.O.B' 15-year old Bruichladdich was fully-matured in a single sherry cask, which is a bit of a departure from the distillery's usual style - it's still the only fully Oloroso sherry-cask matured, a.k.a 'sherry bomb', official bottling of Bruichladdich that I've tasted.

This Australian-exclusive example is a little different. In some ways it's more typically Bruichladdich, being fully-matured in a wine cask, something much more commonly seen from this distillery. In this case that was a single Syrah wine cask, which is a heavier-style of French red wine that is similar to Australian Shiraz - in fact they both stem (pun intended) from the same grape variety. The finished wines tend to be different in style though, with Syrah being a lighter, less-intense style compared to the heavy tannic, peppery style of most Australian Shiraz wines. I'm not a red wine fan myself, and some red wine cask-matured (mainly Australian) whiskies don't push my buttons, but Bruichladdich seem to really know what they're doing with these casks. They have used Syrah casks a number of times in the past, with the delicious Octomore 7.2 (a mix of fully-matured ex-bourbon and ex-Syrah casks) probably being the most widely-known release. The other example that sticks in my mind is the distillery exclusive 'Valinch' hand-filled bottling that was available during my first visit to Islay back in 2017, which should make for an interesting comparison, although I can barely remember it now! This single cask Australian exclusive 'laddie was distilled on May 7, 2009 from Scottish Appaloosa barley - which is a two-row modern distiller's variety of barley. After ten years in that first-fill Syrah red wine cask, cask #1604, it was bottled on December 11, 2019 at an ABV of 62.7%, without any chill filtration or added colouring. The retail price on this one was $240 AUD, which is expensive, but not unreasonable considering that they realistically could've charged more and it would have sold out regardless. Let's do this!

Bruichladdich Micro-Provenance 10-year old, 62.7%. Islay, Scotland. 
Distilled 5/2009, fully matured in a single Syrah red wine cask, bottled 12/2019. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. Exclusive to Australia. 282 bottles, cask #1604.

Colour: Bronze.

Nose: Sweet, fruity & spicy. Stewed stone fruit, sweetened thick cream with a few berries thrown in, and red apples in the background. Some red grapes, mild tannins (wine rather than oak, I'd say), vanilla paste and roasted nuts - walnut and almond, maybe some hazelnut. Hints of liquorice and salted caramel fudge.
  Texture: Heavy weight, thick & rich. A little heat (it's nearly 63%, remember) but very pleasant.

Taste: Soft sweet entry that builds very quickly and turns slightly fatty, with sweet thick vanilla cream, more stewed stone fruit (plum, peach & apricot) and more roasted nuts. Spiced dark chocolate and some drying spicy oak, with a little chilli salt (jalapeno salt).

Finish: Long length. That spiced chocolate is still there but it's creamy milk chocolate now, and the roasted nuts and warming chilli salt as well, plus a hint of star anise. The stone fruity & cream again as well but the oak has dried things out a little and has boosted the spice. Poached pears with a little sea salt to round things out.

Score: 4 out of 5.

Notes: Very tasty, as expected! They've done a good job of choosing this cask I'd say, it'll suit the target audience nicely. Big flavours, overt wine cask influence, and big texture & finish. It's a fruity, flavourful whisky that is a different style of Bruichladdich to most of their current releases - although I'd love to do a side-by-side tasting between this single cask 'laddie and the MRC01 Port Charlotte - there's more wood and more punch, but with no shortage of richness. An Australian wine cask-matured whisky drinker will certainly find this to their liking, but it's softer on the wood, wine & tannins than most of those, and is definitely better balanced - which is a very good thing.

Since this single cask Bruichladdich has already sold out, it's a bit of a moot point, but any Australian 'laddie fan will want to get their hands on one of these. Just don't pay the flippers' prices if you can help it! Well done to Bruichladdich, and thanks for finally sending a single cask down under!

Cheers!